Custom-printing playing cards is, I have had reason to learn, hugely expensive and a massive PITA.

Great Art is never cheap.

A quick google for custom+playing+cards throws up a few companies that don't seem eye-gougingly expensive (but certainly more than I'd casually fork out for a laugh), and the process seems quite striaghtforward.

Take a look at what David Gauntlett is offering on his media theory site, at www.theory.org.uk/cards.htm

Quoth the raven, 404, dude.

Okay, I last looked quite a few years ago, and the biggest problem was card-stock. The places doing it for not-gougy were using those cards we used to buy from UBS when we were right out, and they'd last one game of Bastard Gin and then split apart. What we were after was something of Carta Mundi quality at least. Because if you're going to, say, work out what the whole PAS deck should be, get artwork, agree what goes on the backs and then get them printed up for Ussellrae's irthdaybae, you wanna do it right.

I like my 8-year-old's nightly reading homework from Northland School (that's the suburb Northland in Wellington, next door to Karori). My daughter's supposed to spend some time reading a book each night. Any book. Her choice. Many available from school if she wants. Just read.

Strangely, National Standards gets far more attention than the new New Zealand National Curriculum, which was slowly phased in over the last few years. The curriculum devolves many options and choices to schools as to exactly what to teach, as long as broad goals are reached. It was developed because of research showing that a great strength of NZ schools is teacher-driven choice.

I've seen the American school system, though not recently. What I saw as a kid was standard exercise books, the same for every class in the city, all students filling in the same problem sets. Standard textbooks used by every teacher, with standard lesson-plans, standards posters (and now standard powerpoint presentations, I'm sure) for each class, all written a thousand miles away for some generic class of generic kids with a generic teacher. Except for those lucky gifted kids, who might get the same "extension" exercises as every other gifted kid in the, coz they're all the same right?

New Zealand's schools are among the best in the world, and we do while spending a lot less on education than the Americans do. We do it by having teachers plan their own lessons, use their own resources, use their own ideas and fit them to their own class. Our new Curriculum was carefully thought out to support that. How the hell a flexible curriculum is supposed to mesh with National Standards has not been thought out, because the first was based on careful research into the strengths of NZ schools and the second on knee-jerk implementation of imported ideology.

Brilliant ad! Ta for that, DeepRed. I just can't even fathom the thinking that goes into taking funding away from classes that are at once the last resort and the crucial first step for so many people.

Icehawk, the reading homework is great! We do get the same thing - an injunction to read for 25 minutes per night. The trouble is getting him to stop at 25 mins (the library card gets quite a workout!).

The school system over here hasn't changed much since you saw it, except that now there don't seem to be any textbooks as such, just downloaded or photocopied pages, sent home one at a time.

Today's maths gem:

Q: Which object would be about 12 inches long? a) a roadb) a jet plane c) a kitten d) a baseball bat

After some discussion about whether the jet plane was real or a toy, and whether there was such a thing as toddler-sized baseball bats, Mr 8 grudgingly ticked (c) and added a written note: "Have you ever seen a kitten? A lion cub or something like that, maybe, but a kitten?"

Our new Curriculum was carefully thought out to support that. How the hell a flexible curriculum is supposed to mesh with National Standards has not been thought out, because the first was based on careful research into the strengths of NZ schools and the second on knee-jerk implementation of imported ideology.

I'm really not so sure about that. Schools had to measure achievement in numeracy and literacy before the introduction of the standards, and report on that achievement. From what I hear from the teachers and the principal of the school I am involved with, the issues have more to do with the language in which the reporting is couched (you go tell a five year old or a kid with a learning disability that he or she is "well below expectations") and how the standardisation of the reporting lends itself to league tables. But if a school doesn't chart the progress of children in those core areas via standardised assessment tools, then that school is not doing its job.

Q: Which object would be about 12 inches long?a) a roadb) a jet planec) a kittend) a baseball bat

The use of 'would' in the question can imply hypothetical conditionality, any object would be 12 inches long under certain conditions. Is this how the question was worded? I'd have gone with 'a road' just for argument's sake.

Anne Tolley will be available to talk to you 'about how National Standards will help your child' at 10 am Tuesday 9 March at list MP Katrina Shanks' office in Broderick Road, Johnsonville, if any Wellingtonians are interested.

There is a documentary in progress on Susan King. (http://www.susanking.co.nz/). Most of her art from school was given away; usually before family saw it - they now have the conundrum of having the art seen by others without losing the originals. Susan has only recently picked up doing art again after decades without it, helped by the art exhibition, the documentary process and family encouragement. Susan has autism.